From: "D. Glenn Arthur Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Can't help with the "Spirit" questions....
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'Nuther darkroom question: I want to make some BW slides. The first thought I had was to buy some Scala, which will be a special order at my local camera shop, or mail order, and I presume I'll have to mail it off to be processed, right? The second idea was to find out whether there was a chemical trick to turn Tri-X into slide film, and it turna out there's chemistry to do that with TMax, again special order and I'm not sure whether it works for TX. And the third notion was to make a contact copy by unrolling a bit of Tri-X in the darkroom, laying the negative I want to make a positive of on top of it, and shining the enlarger on it briefly (this'll be using 120 film for both, BTW). So ... is that last idea sane, and if so, how do I guesstimate a reasonable starting range for the length of time to light it? (I'm assuming that I am going to have to determine the exact exposure experimentally.)
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Kodak made a reversal developing kit for use with TMax 100. I inheritated a bunch of the chemistry from my father a few years ago, but it was way out of date. The chemistry has crystalized in the bottles and looks pretty bad. Many bottles look like the chemistry has evaporated. I recently found a file full of film boxes, inserts, and developer instructions that he had squirreled away, and I think the directions for the reversal kit are in there. I don't know if the reversal kits are still made.
Otherwise, Scala is an option but it is a proprietary process. I looked into it a few months ago but for me the fun of developing is a big part of the reason for shooting B&W, so I never pursued it.
BTW, the results of the "35mm film in the Holga" experiment amused me enough that I'm considering adding a rewind knob to the Holga. I'm not sure it's really worth it for anything other than "look what I can do" though, since I don't know where to find a negative carrier the shape of the resulting neg, and I could always just crop a normal Holga neg down to that panoramic shape anyhow. Still, it amuses me.
I missed that earlier post - how do you know how far to wind the 35mm film in the Holga? I believe an early model HP Photosmart scanner will scan a whole strip of negs, up to 5 IIRC, so that could make for a nice pano.
PS: I've got four rolls of TX that have the green blocks on the cans and say "Kodak Tri-X pan 400 Professional" instead of the current "Kodak Professional Tri-X 400". These take a slightly shorter development time, right? I'm sure that info is buried somewhere on the Kodak web site, but I wasn't able to figure out where.
I have several rolls of 35mm Tri-X with the green blocks on the film can, but they don't say 'professional' on them anywhere. They simply say "Kodak Tri-X 400 Black and White Print Film." They expired in 02/2002. These are the old emulsion, but I don't know if there were pro and consumer versions of Tri-X.
FWIW - these are the recommended times from the box:
TMax RS - 5 min @ 24C D-76 - 8 min @ 20 C HC110 Dil B - 7.5 min @ 20 C Microdol X - 10 min @ 20 C
I can san the box to give you the full range of times and temps if you need them.
No times for D76 1:1 given.
Personally, I favor Microdol-X, 1:3, 14 minutes at 24C. You may want to try the massive developer chart at www.digitaltruth.com .
HTH -
MCC
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Mark Cassino Photography
Kalamazoo, MI
www.markcassino.com
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----- Original Message -----
-- Glenn
